His real name was Ghulam Qadir Sethi though in the film world of the sub continent he was known as Zia Sarhadi. Born and bred in Peshawar city he made a big time in Bollywood as a film director, script writer and film poet. In the days when even taking name of communism was considered as a sin he produced and directed all time great movie Humlog in 1951 based on communist ideology which not only hit the headlines in the world of celluloid, it established him as a film director in Bollywood. The other notable films produced by him included a film titled Foot Path in which Dilip Kumar played a leading role. He penned the memorable songs of the famous musical hit of its time Baiju Bawra. Zia had come to Karachi during Ayubian era to produce a film Rehguzar but the films censor board subjected it to such a ruthless scissors ‘s cut that it mutilated and destroyed its very essence and theme completely. Heart broken he left for Mumbai but later when he returned in General Ziaul Haque time he was subjected to harassment by the intelligence Agencies for his communist ideas forcing him to seek political asylum in London where incidentally he had to spent a big part of 1980s under asylum laws. He and another fugitive from Peshawar city Farigh Bokhari stayed together in the same building in London for a big part of 1980.
Zia Sarhadi was related to famous singer Salma Agha in the sense that he was son in law of famous music director of Bollywood Rafique Ghaznavi who was maternal grandfather of Salma Agha. TV artist late Khayyam Sarhadi was his son and present Tv actress Ziley Sarhadi was his grand daughter.
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